Man-hole for fire-engine houses



Y, UNITED .STATESPATENT .i OFFICE.

ELBEEDGE o. CHASE, 0E LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS.

MAN-HOLE FoR FIRE-ENGINE Houses.

srEc-IrroArroi forming part of Letters Parent No. 325,731, dates september-a, less.

l "o Application filed JulylB, 1835. (No model) i i To all alecm it may concern.: l

i Beit known that I, ELBREEGE O. CHASE, of Lynn, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement 'in' Man-Holes for Fire-Engine Houses, of which the following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

In the steam-tire-engine houses of the present day it is customary for the permanent men to 'be quartered in the second story of the house, and in order to facilitate their descent to the lower door in case of an alarm of re a man-hole is cut through the door, said hole usually being in circular form and about three feet in diameter, and having a round post'set in its center and extending from the door of the lower story to the ceiling ofthe upper story, which post the men Seize and slide down through said man-hole to thelower door.

This man-hole is usually open at all hours of the day and night, so as t-o leave an unobstructed passage for the men when summoned by an alarm of lire in the night,while they are asleep in their rooms in the second story of the building, there being no means provided for closing said opening; but it has been found to be objectionable on account of the draft of air through said opening, which makes it very uncomfortable for the men who have to sleep in near proximity to said opening. To overcome this objection and prevent-such draft without interfering with the rapid and easy descent of the men through said opening is the object 0f my present invention; and it consists in apair of self-closing doors arranged to open downward to permit the passage of a man through. the opening in the iioor and to close the opening immediately after the passage of the man, and to remain closed until opened again by the descent of another person or the application of force to their upper sides.

It further consists in a novel arrangement of the connterbalance-weight relative to the pivotal axis of the door, whereby the force of gravity will close the door when opened to any extent up to ninety degrees of movement, and to certain combinations and arrangements of parts, which will be readily understood by reference to the descriptions of the drawings, and to the claims to be hereinafter given.

Figurel of the drawings is a vertical section through a portion of the second door of an engine house, the cutting -plan`e being through the axis 0f the manhole or opening 55 in the floor and transversely of the axes of the doors; and Fig. 2 is a sectional plan of the same, a portion of the floor being broken away to show the construction and mode of hanging of the doors. y y 60 In the drawings, A A are the licor-timbers of the building, and B the floor, through which iscut the man-hole or opening C, provided with a circular casing, C,`extending down- `ward nearly to the bottom ofthe floorin'g- 65 timbers, as shown. y

D is a post or vertical shaft set in the center of the manhole C, and extending from the lower floor to the ceiling of the second story,V said shaft being firmly secured at each end in said floor and ceiling in awell-known manner. EE are the sides of arect-angular box-casing iitted within and secured to the floortimbers A A', and extending from the under side 'of the lioor B to the under side of the ceiling a, as shown in Fig. 1.

F F are two doors or shutters, each secured to a met-al shaft, G, mounted in metal bearings b b, secured to thesides E E o f Athe rectangular box-easing, as shown in Fig. 2. The doors F F are preferably-made of light wood, and extend outward from the center of the man-hole or opening C two or three inches beyond the centers or axes of the shafts G, and are counterbalaneedby increasing the weight of said outer ends, so that the action of gravity will keep said doors closed until forced open byv pressure upon their uppersides at or near their inner edges. rlhe counter-weight `g is preferablyeast in one piece with the shaft and 9o provided with a groove, g', to receive the outer end of the wooden door, as shown in Fig. l;

but it is obvious that said counter-weight may be separate from the shaft and secured to the door by screws or otherwise, if desired, without departing from the principles of my invention. It is very important that this eounter-weight, whether made in one piece with the shaft or separate therefrom, vshould have its center of gravity considerably below the Ioo axis of the shaft when the door is'closed, and outside of said axis when the door is opened to a perpendicular position, so that the door will close automatically from any degree of opening between a perpendicular or pendent position of the door Vand its closed position. When the doors are closed, they shut against the lower edge of the circular casing C, and the under side of' the outer ends of said doors or the counter-weights g rest upon the upper side of the inwardly-projecting portion of the casing c, secured to the lower edge of the rectangular box-casing E E, all as shown in Fig. l. The normal position of the doors F F is closed, as shown in Fig. 1, and the operation of my invention is as follows: If a man desires to descend to the lower floor through the manhole, he seizes the shaft D and slides down it, just as he would if the opening were not closed .by the doors, and as his person comes in contact with the doors in his descent they move downward and outward about the axes of their shafts sufciently to permit the free passage of his person, and as soon as the pressure is removed the doors resume their normal position,and remain so until again opened by press- .ure from above.

yWhat I claim as new, and desire to secure Iby Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. In combination with an opening through the floor of a building and a vertical post or.

shaft set centrally therein, a pair of doors arranged to open downward and outward to permit the passage of a person through said opening, and counterbalanoe-weights arranged to close said doors when the force which opened them is removed, substantially as described.

2. In combination with a door arranged to open downward and about a horizontal axis, a counter-weight so arranged relative to the axis of motion of said door that the center of gravity of said weight shall be below said axis when the door is in its normal or closed position, and upon that side of said axis toward which the door moves in opening when said door is opened.

3. The combination of the man-hole C, the vertical shaft D, the doors F F, and the shafts G, provided with the counter-weights g, formed in one piece therewith, and having the grooves g', all arranged and adapted to operate Substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, on this 16th day of July, A. D. 1885.

ELBREDGE O. CHASE.

Vitnesses:

WALTER E. LOMBARD, Gno. E. MITCHELL. 

